Michael J Kennelly

For this week's shooting challenge I utilized a continuous light kit to create a lot of contrast. Contrast was my highest priority to get the solid duotone look. I figured it would look better at night given the nature of this technique. I went with a brown to blue gradient to get the duotones popping. Out of all the colors I tried, these colors brought the best mood to the photo. This was a super fun challenge and I think it turned out fantastic. Processed in photoshop cs4. Shout out to my sista for being the model.

Canon 60d, 28mm vintage nikon lens, f2.8, 1/60th, ISO 400

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Thanks!

- Tyler Bedgood

Not much unlike me, this flower refuses to accept winter is here.

Canon T2i, 100mm. Used photoshop CS5 to create the duotone (using the tutorial).

I originally planned to arrive at the lake before sunset, however the sun had passed behind the trees before I could get into position. Determined to make the most out of the trip I used what little light was left to shoot some birds.
The silhouettes contrasted the reflection of the dimming sky strongly exhibiting a duotone effect with no post processing.

Thanks

- Sean Levy

Shooting Summary: Nikon D80 w/ 35mm 1.8G lens. First of all it's impossible to get a clean picture of the memorial without dozens of people around. We were there on a Saturday morning and it there was over 100 people visiting the new memorial. It's detail and size are overwhelming, we are lucky to have some many memorials around like this one in DC. This is my first time messing with Duotone and being an amateur photographer I appreciate any feedback or recognition. Thank you for holding these Shooting Challenges, they are inspiring.

- Roberto Alvarez

Canon T2i, Kit 18-55mm lens, Vivitar DF-483 Flash.

This is a part of a mirror hanging up against my living room wall. I followed the Photoshop guide you offered for doing duotones, but I didn't like how it looked with the blend under "color," so I left it at "normal." I thought it looked kind of like the surface of Mars which is why I went with the red color.

Best,

- Solomon Kamman

Hello,

I am submitting this picture on behalf of my 16-year-old son (he just joined Gizmodo recently under the name Anths95), since you have to be 18 to enter contests.

As he explains:
"I really wanted to get involved in this contest because I had just gotten a book that, among other things, detailed duotone pictures and I had never tried taking any before this contest. So, when I saw duotone was the challenge for this week, I was obviously excited, and wanted to get right to it. Well, the week slipped past without many pictures taken, and none were suitable for duotone processing. So, on Sunday, after coming home from one of my brother's hockey games, at 9:30 pm, I decided I had to make up my mind and shoot something - fast. So, I went up to my bedroom, to my giant display of Hot Wheels cars (still can't afford the real ones yet, so they're the next best thing to collect) and set up my camera on a tripod, toying with different angles, apertures, focus points, etc. Finally I got one that I liked, I imported it into Photoshop, and used black for the first tone, and a medium blue for the second tone. As a note, if someone can identify all the cars in focus, they're officially awesome in my book."

Post processing with GIMP. The two colors used were Yellow for the light layer, and Violet for the dark layer.

-Mike Case

f/2.8
1/640 sec
ISO 80

Acid Wash

I hadn't tried doing a duotone picture before now. I love the drama it
provides - I had a hard time choosing the photo to submit! This was
taken at sunset at The Oasis in Austin, Texas at Lake Travis.

I really enjoyed adding to my Photoshop skills, too. Thanks for the challenge!

- Karen Tarlow

I finally decided to give one of these challenges a shot and thought this one would be a good starting point. Plus, a buddy and I from work have started challenging each other with these and seeing as he isn't submitting one, I am now winning 1-0. I went to the town hall building in my city and just started taking shots and really liked this one. I used a nikon d5100 with a 55-200 mm lens. ISO 100, 1/250 exposure and f8.

- Stephen Wolking

In my opinion, there are certain photographs that just have to be black and white. Being fairly new at photography, I had never heard of duotones. Doutones give a new twist to black and white photography. Winter has set in here. I could have tried something safe in my warm house, but my love is out in the field driving around till I find a Gem. After all Idaho is the Gem State. So I loaded up the dog, camera, lenses, and left all my filters at home.

"Demonic Fire" was shot in Clover, Idaho. This Lutheran church and school are the only thing in Clover. Other than thousands of acres of rolling farm land. It is an absolutely beautiful setting in the middle of nowhere. The photograph was captured with my Canon T1i Rebel with the 18-55mm lens at 18mm. Settings were, 1/25, f-14.0, ISO 100.

In Photoshop I used the gradient map to select two different shades of red. I then played with the sliders till I got the highs and lows where I wanted them. Opening a new layer in curves I went crazy until I got the exorcist need for the photograph. I know the color is extreme, but I think I got the Good Vs. Evil feel I wanted for the photograph. Thanks for teaching me something new in Photoshop.

-Ron Barrett

I went for a walk today to enjoy the fall colors and came across these horses grazing in a field.

Fujifilm s3000 — F2.8 — 1/220" — ISO100 — 14mm

Post processing with GIMP. Yellow used for the light layer. Brown used for the dark layer.

-Toni Case

It's been awhile since I've entered, been extremely busy with life (moved, had major car repairs on three seperate weekends and just trying to get settled). Finally had the oppurtunity to take a break and hit my favorite Japanese Steakhouse with the intent of capturing the chef's flaming onion volcano at the height of intensity, shot in full color then converted to monochrome in CS5, added an additional layer w/ a blue filter trying to make it a cold flame. Had fun with this one, though I actually prefer the original pic by a long shot.

Interesting idea, seemingly easy and yet difficult at the same time. I started by trying to shoot a misting fountain I have. Then moved to a colored candle. Then I stepped outside with a winterstorm coming in and noticed the sky. I thought it was perfect. So I present a duotone sunset.

My SpiderMum looks like a super-flower all dressed in brown and yellow. It finally bloomed in time for the challenge!

I took it on my Canon Rebel T2i and fiddled a bit in iPhoto to get the duotone effect.

- Georgina Lawrence

Continuing my apparent quest to only submit photos of stuff I find outside, I was making a now familiar trek through downtown Marietta, Ohio. I realized I hadn't taken one shot of the old Colony Theater (or Colony Cinema, as it was once known). I couldn't get the whole name in the shot without stepping into busy traffic, so I cropped it wide and tight, can I get points for giving it a "cinematic fee?" Playing with various color combinations I settled on two that gave it a good "old-timey" feel (to me at least). Specifically I used a hue of 51 and saturation of 70 for the highlights, sort of a mud color, and a hue of 277 with a saturation of 34 for the shadows, which was a light purple. I tweaked the balance slightly more toward the highlights for something close to sepia, but the purple shade still shows pretty strong in the dark areas. Shot at f/3.5, 1/60 sec, ISO 100, 18mm.

-Jason Pyles

I took a picture of a red maple leaf on top of a lighted tracing pad so the background was all white and the light shone through the leaf. I generally followed the Photoshop instructions provided in the challenge, but tweaked a few settings such as gradient map colors and the curves adjustment layer. I like how the picture looks artificial even though it started with something real.

Canon 7D with 100mm macro lens. 1/100s, f/2.8, ISO 200.

- David Lee

For this challenge I pictured an end of the world type of movie. So I went out to an empty highway in Texas and shot some cracks in the road. For the colors I thought a sickly green would look good to illustrate an empty Earth and a nice dark purple went well as the other color. It was really an easy shooting challenge to come up with an idea for; black and white road = nice contrast. I knew I didn't want to go overboard with vibrant colors. This one was tons of fun.

The Radcliffe Camera (or "Rad Cam") is probably the most photographed building in Oxford, but I figured this challenge would give me an opportunity to show it in a 'new light'. I chose purple and pink (or at least I would have, if it existed) for the duotones, to add a sense of playfulness to the otherwise austere buildings. I'm particularly pleased with the varying tones in the glass of the lamp, and the element of madness suggested by the multitude of signposts. Shot with a Canon EOS 550D & 18-135 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens @ ISO 500 18mm -0.33EV f/22 1/30.